Many wastes, such as sludges and contaminated soils, include a matrix and one or more volatilizable components. For example, sludges generated by industrial processes which include a solid matrix component also often include a volatilizable component which is not suitable for disposal by direct discharge to the environment. In another example, soil can become contaminated by oil, gasoline or other contaminants, such as by leakage from storage vessels or during drilling of oil wells.
One attempt to dispose of such wastes is by containment in sealed land fills. However, seals in land fills can deteriorate and fail, thereby allowing the wastes to leak into the surrounding ground. Further, land-fills generally require large areas of land and availability of suitable land-fill sites is diminishing. In addition, governmental regulation limits the kinds of waste which can be disposed of in land fills. Disposal of wastes has also been attempted by incineration. However, airborne pollutants are typically released into the atmosphere as incinerator exhaust.
Another attempt to dispose of volatilizable component-containing wastes includes volatilization of the volatilizable components. The volatilized components can then be treated separately. Removal of volatilizable components from matrices, however, has often been substantially incomplete because of the relatively low volatility of many volatilizable components. Following volatilization of these relatively low volatility components, quenching, condensation and redeposition of the relatively low vapor pressure components has occurred due to intermixing with relatively high vapor pressure components.
Thus, a need exists for an apparatus and method for removing volatilizable components from matrices which overcome or minimize the above-mentioned problems.